If you didn't already know, remote work is here to stay. According to statistics, there will be more than 36 million American remote workers by 2025. This is excellent news for the over 97% of remote employees who don't want to work on-site full-time any longer. If you're one of them, accept the hearty congratulations from all of us at CoffeePals.
While remote work may be convenient, there are many disadvantages to working from home. For example, you wouldn't enjoy those celebratory office events anymore, right?
WRONG.
With virtual conferencing platforms like Microsoft Teams and Slack, you can connect with your work pals remotely and still enjoy the same celebrations you had with your team. There’s no need to worry about missing out on your favorite team get-togethers anymore.
In this article, we’ll talk about the essence of virtual team celebrations and discuss numerous unique ideas to explore with your co-workers. Are you ready? Let's get started.
Why Search for Virtual Team Celebration Ideas?
There’s no need to wait for something out of the ordinary to happen before organizing virtual work parties. Celebrating small wins and milestones can greatly benefit your team, especially if you only get to interact with each other online.
Just like money spent on experiences is never a waste, so is time spent on remote celebrations. Here's why:
Socialization and Combating Loneliness
While remote work has its benefits, let's face it — it has disadvantages too. For example, it can get lonely sometimes, having to do all that office work without your office buddies. Trust us when we say that we know how draining loneliness can be.
According to research, 21% of remote workers think loneliness is the biggest challenge in working from home. Virtual team celebrations are a fantastic way to socialize with your team and shake off that loneliness. This means that you enjoy the feeling of togetherness while working from home.
A Sense of Mutual Purpose and Community
Everyone needs a sense of purpose and community to perform tasks optimally. In addition, that sense of purpose gives you the motivation to get up from bed in the morning to clear out your to-do lists.
How do you keep this motivation alive? One of the most effective ways is connecting with your team. Virtual team celebrations help your remote team to build this sense of community. With CoffeePals, you can automatically virtually pair up employees for informal chats or even virtual mentoring and onboarding sessions:
Improved Team Engagement
At CoffeePals, our favorite reason for facilitating remote events is boosting team engagement. That's why we are always so excited to think up creative virtual team holiday celebration ideas. Learn more about how we do this by subscribing to our newsletter.
These events ensure that everyone in your virtual team participates in an activity — even the most introverted among them. As such, virtual celebrations help to boost everyone's team bonding skills.
Increased Employee Productivity
Celebrating employees' victories encourages them to do better. It's one of the most effective ways to motivate staff to increase their efficiency.
Virtual celebrations can also strengthen team bonds, reduce stress, enhance communication, and foster creativity, all of which contribute to a more productive and cohesive remote team. By creating a positive and supportive work environment through celebrations, teams are better equipped to achieve their goals and overcome challenges.
When Is the Best Time to Implement Your Virtual Team Celebration Ideas?
There's no appropriate time to have a virtual team bonding moment. Apart from having fun, these activities help to boost employee productivity and business growth, making them an integral part of every remote team's success.
Feel free to organize a virtual team celebration anytime you feel the need to. But if you need good reasons to hold one, these specific occasions could be opportunities to hold a remote celebration:
- After rounding off a project
- Upon completing probation
- When someone gets a promotion or salary raise
- When a customer leaves a fantastic review
- When someone is leaving the organization
- Company anniversaries
- When the team meets a target
- When there's a breakthrough of any sort
At the end of the day, there will always be good reasons to celebrate in any team. It’s not just about celebrating things that are out of the ordinary. Sometimes, celebrating even the smallest of things could make a huge impact.
Top Virtual Team End of Year Celebration Ideas to Implement
Are you ready to have the fun of your life while bonding with your office team members? Here are some virtual team celebration ideas that will get the entire team in a frenzy:
Cocktail Shake-Up
What's a party without champagne? In a cocktail shake-up event, a wine expert will facilitate an online tutorial on how to make tasty drinks and add a bit more fun into it by hosting a drinking game.
From: Corporate Gift
With each team getting the chance to mix up fancy drinks, it creates a fun and celebratory vibe perfect for celebrating birthdays, promotions, end of year events, and more.
Just a Darn Fun Game Night
As the name suggests, this activity involves so much fun you wouldn't want it to end. It's a combination of your favorite games like rapid-fire Bingo, trivia mashups, etc. It normally takes about an hour to conclude, but . On Microsoft Teams, you can download apps like Trivia to play fun quizzes as a team.
Virtual Care Package
This activity involves sending surprise gifts to employees in the form of care packages. This activity helps to boost employee morale and make them feel valued. Unique present ideas include scented candles, house plants, craft kits, etc.
Trivia Games
Trivia games are one of the most exciting ways to ensure everyone participates in the virtual game celebration. You can prepare questions that suit the reason for the merrymaking. Alternatively, you can also use online trivia services.
Unfamiliar Holidays
Celebrate diversity and boost inclusion by observing unfamiliar holidays that may be special to only certain team members. These holiday celebrations help to highlight their culture, learn new things, and show them how much you value them. Some unfamiliar holidays include National Puppy Day, Scavenger Hunt Day, Boss's Day, etc.
Karaoke
Karaoke can be a fun virtual team event for the music lovers out there. Employees can decide whether they want to dance, sing, or watch others singing. You can also get them to submit their favorite song before the celebration date.
Organize your karaoke to suit team members' preferences and make it fun in your unique way. For example, you can infuse a dance competition into your karaoke session.
Annual Success Stories
Sharing success stories is one of the most fantastic year-end virtual team celebration ideas. Compile the team's achievements for the year, dedicate a date to celebrate, and read them aloud. You can reminisce on what you've accomplished together using photos and sharing experiences.
Team Lunch
Send pizza to team members and discuss different topics together while munching on the snacks. Every participant gets a gift card or stipend to purchase their favorite snacks. It's a creative way to turn lunchtime into bonding time or a learning event.
Our virtual team lunch guide has extensive information to get you started.
Movie Night
Watching a movie with your team is one of the best ways to get introverts actively involved in the celebration. It's a time for them to relax and get comfortable with the team while partaking in an activity they love. Also, you can decide to schedule breaks where team members can discuss and build connections with each other.
Online Birthday Celebrations
Show your team how much you value them by tracking their birthdays and celebrating with a virtual party. You can come up with creative ideas on how to make it more fun, like dressing up as the celebrant’s favorite character or making a video compilation of sweet messages from the team member’s friends.
Social Media Shoutouts
With everyone finding more creative ways to utilize social media, you and your team shouldn't be left out. You can ask for your team's approval to give a shout out to them on social media — just as you would friends and family. Here’s a great example by Habitat for Humanity:
It's an affordable and convenient way to celebrate your team members' achievements. Social media shoutouts also extend the celebration to the team's loved ones. They'll appreciate the gesture.
Online Cooking Class
Food is always the best way to get people together, even through remote platforms. You can get a professional to teach the team how to prepare some special delicacies in an online cooking class. You can have everyone buy the ingredients beforehand, or you can send them kits containing the ingredients they'll need.
Team members can work in their own kitchens with their laptops or mobile phones nearby as they listen to the instructions. This is a great way for everyone to work on something and cheer each other on as they learn to cook.
From CoCuSocial
Virtual Team Holiday Celebration Best Practices
Regardless of the celebration activity you're having, these guidelines will help you make the best of them:
You Don't Have to Break the Bank
We know you love the finer things of life and would always love a grand celebration. However, the beauty of virtual celebration is the team connection and not grandeur. So, you don't have to spend lots of money planning one.
Again, who says you must plan every virtual celebration with your colleagues beforehand? You can give a shout-out to appreciate a hard worker during a department meeting or any other official function. There are no strict rules to these things.
Be Generous and Specific With Praise
Never underestimate the importance of praise and commendation in boosting an employee's morale. Just remember that you don't have to wait till they've done something extraordinary before giving them a shout-out.
Genuinely appreciate your coworkers for whatever assistance they may have offered you. Remember to be specific with your praises by mentioning what you're thanking them for. Trust us; they'll look for opportunities to do better.
Pleasant Surprises Are Never Old Fashioned
Surprise your team with a sweet gesture they never expected. There are many surprise ideas to explore, from personalized "thank you" cards to paid courses and career coaching sessions.
It's Time to Get the Ball Rolling!
What's your favorite virtual team celebration idea? We can't wait to see you execute them. But more than just watching you enjoy your celebration, we want to be part of it.
At CoffeePals, we help teams within Microsoft Teams and Slack build stronger bonds through online coffee chats. Check out our different programs now.
Ready to learn more about celebrating employee wins? Read this next: 7 Reasons Why It's Important to Celebrate Employee Successes and Milestones
